Mr Brightside
by AliceMatilda
Summary: Matthew Williams gets a new job as a singer in the back room of the well know mobsters the Braginski's bar 'Mr. Brightside's' and develops a friendship with one of the Braginski's prostitutes, Julia Beilschmidt, and slowly falls in love with her. Their boss, Ivan, will stop them from being together at all costs. [Based of the music video Mr. Brightside not the actual song]


**Based off the Music video for Mr. Brightside by The Killers not the actual song even though I did put some of the lyrics in the story. If you haven't seen the Mr. Brightside music video I suggest you watch it along with another of their songs, Miss Atomic Bomb.**

**(Mr. Brightside) /watch?v=gGdGFtwCNBE**

**(Miss Atomic Bomb) /watch?v=Qok9Ialei4c**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia or The Killers**

**Rated T for the prostitution**

_Matthew watched from the stage as Julia sat on Ivan's lap. The Russian held her tiny narrow fingers in his massive soul crushing hands against his chest. His face, was only inches from hers. Matthew's stomach felt sick. It churned and refused to settle. Jealousy, that's what Toris told him it was. It was all in his head. But it wasn't jealousy; it was anger and rage from everything. That she could never be his. She stared at Ivan at first looking deep into those frightening violet eyes, but after a few seconds she turned her beautiful round face to the side and turned those captivating crimson eyes to Matthew. They weren't filled with their usual elegance, happiness and excitement, they were dark and filled with misery wanting to escape. They were screaming and she wanted him to save her. It killed him knowing that he couldn't help her anymore. Ivan grabbed her face and turned it toward him again. As soon as he let her face go she turned back to Matthew again. Just a quick glance that's all it was. But Ivan didn't share; he pulled her face back holding it still in his hand as he kissed those red lips the ones Matthew had kissed only the other day. It drove daggers into his heart to watch but he just couldn't look away. After he released her lips he pushed her off of him and onto the floor. She lay there face down, her white curled hair hiding her almost white but makeup covered face, her sky blue dress spread out about the floor all at Ivan's feet. Matthew wanted to run to her, pick her up, and just hold her in his arms. He looked to Eduard on his left. The quiet blonde Estonian simply shook his head and continued to pluck at the bass knowing exactly what the Canadian was thinking. Vladimir nodded his head agreeing with Eduard and continuing to play his guitar on Matthew's right. So Matthew stood there singing and watched as the woman he loved was helped to her feet by Katyusha and Elizabeta. Everything he was now was all because of Julia. Coming out of his cage, out of his shell was all because of one kiss and falling in love with Julia Beilschmidt. How did it all end up like this?_

Matthew Williams didn't know exactly what kind of work he would be doing when he was contacted by Ivan Braginski, Mr. Brightside himself. The Braginskis were well known pimps and mobsters. Once one gets into the Braginskis' business they don't get out in less they are in a body bag. Amy, Matthew's younger sister, begged him not to work for the 'communists', but one does not simply say no to Ivan Braginski. It turns out all Ivan had wanted was for Matthew to be his new 'back room' singer after having a 'disagreement' with his old one, and hearing Matthew in the local bar he sang at. He offered Matthew three times his old salary. So Matthew happily accepted despite the risk of the Braginskis and their business. So that's how he ended up at Mr. Brightside's, the head quarters for their prostitution ring, being shown around by a scared Lithuanian man named Toris Laurinaitis who reminded him very much of a scared cat.

"This is the back room" he said opening the door behind the bar. When Matthew stepped through he was amazed at what he saw. It was like a mini theater with a gilded stage up front with beautiful red and gold curtains. Even more red curtains hung from the ceiling and covered the walls in either velvet or silk. The other side of the room where people sat there were four different levels with three velveteen couches on each level and a golden table in front. Two massive jade dragons stood watch over the room, watching the mischief and illegal things that happened in that building. There where two other gilded doors on the other side almost indistinguishable from each other except the one on the left had something written on it in Russian. Above it was a balcony with one red arm chair that could see the entire room. It took a second for Matthew to take in all the grandeur of the room.

"Only the best for the Braginski's," he said smiling to himself, calming himself down just a bit as he did so, "even if it is their prostitution ring. Everything has to be great and expensive," he looked a round and laughed nervously. Then Toris turned to Matthew deadly serious. Matthew looked into his eyes and saw fear and worry.

"You seem like a good man Matthew, so I'm warning you now. Matthew, don't fall in love with any of the girls. Don't even get close to them. I'm telling you. It can not possibly end well. You will both end up dead on the side of the street so mutilated that no one will know who either of you were. Or you will both end up working for Ivan for the rest of what ever is left of your miserable lives." Matthew shivered at Toris' words, pulling his red sweatshirt closer to him.

"I don't plan on falling in love, Toris." The Lithuanian smiled sadly at the Canadian.

"Neither did I. " Toris walked over to the stage with Matthew following him. Both sat down on the edge of the stage and looked out over the few seats that were in the audience "Yet somehow she managed to steal my heart. Felka." the name rolled off his tongue and any trace of fear in him vanished for a second as he said that name.

"Felka is unlike any woman I've ever met. Bold, brave, able to speak her mind, she isn't afraid of what people think of her. She is really only afraid of two people in the entire world. Ivan and one of the 'clients' here Mr. Oxenstierna then again who isn't scared of him?" Toris laughed a little then when back to the completely serious state he was in before he had mentioned her. "I tried to save her from this life," he gestured to the audience "but Ivan wouldn't have it. He wouldn't let us leave. I failed and wasn't able to save her." He looked down to the ground for a few seconds, probably regretting the life he was never able to give to his Felka. After a few minutes of silence he looked up at Matthew again. "I love her." he said simply even though it was quite clear it was completely the truth. "You will meet Felka tonight, along with all the other girls, and Vlad and Eduard." Toris got up off the stage, walking back to the door they entered from. He stopped about halfway to the door.

"One last thing: try to stay away from Julia. She isn't good news and has a liking for the innocent quiet type like you, well I don't know how innocent you really are. Since you agreed to sing for Ivan," he said before turning back around and continuing on his way. Leaving Matthew to try in the gold and black suit he would have to wear later that night.

Matthew was amazed at all the men of higher power and social class that he knew of who were there. Mr. Oxenstierna, Mr. Køhler, Mr. Bondevik, and Mr. Steilsson, the four men who controlled small branches of Braginski's industries; Mr. Kirkland, the mayor of the town; Mr. Bonnefoy, a French ambassador who seem to stay in town a lot, Matthew now knew why; Mr. Edelstein an extremely high-class musician from the wealthiest family in all of America; and finally, Mr. Zwingli, the chief of the police. Seeing these men made Matthew feel powerful, knowing secrets that could tear these men to shreds and put them behind bars, if the public were to find out what they did. Granted, Matthew would probably meet an 'unfortunate accident' if he did anything like that. Each man had a different one of the girls, almost all of whom Matthew had been introduced to earlier. Mr. Oxenstierna was next to a small blonde with blue eyes who had been introduced to him as Tina. Mr. Oxenstierna was stony faced and looked unfeeling while Tina tried to look tough, even if she was toughly terrified of him. Matthew might have felt sorry for her if Vladimir the bassist hadn't told him before how Tina was his regular and the only one he would ever see, except for Julia, a girl Matthew still had yet to meet. Mr. Køhler had his arm wrapped around the long-platinum-haired blue eyed Belarusian, Natalia Braginski, Ivan's younger half-sister, who looked absolutely murderous. Matthew had heard a rumor from Eduard that she was in love with her big brother and only worked there to be close to him and to try and win him over. Mr. Bondevik was next to the rather large chested Katyusha Braginski, Ivan's extremely kind half older-sister. Matthew felt bad for the family she had been born into and the unjust life that had been bestowed upon her as a prostitute, all the other girls chose to be there,some of them needed the money or just away to get away from the hell they were in. But they all chose it. Katyusha didn't. Mr. Steilsson was all over poor little Regina who couldn't have been any more then seventeen. He watched as Eduard, who was practically a brother to her, tightened his grip on his guitar, probably wanting to look away. Mr. Kirkland had Toris' beautiful blonde Felka on his lap. She was whispering something in to his ear that made him soon burst out in to laughter, but it was clear to anyone who had seen the real her, even for a second, that she was a fantastic actress. Matthew saw her sneak glances at the door from time to time. Mr. Bonnefoy was being kissed by Catalena, Vladimir 's older sister. When Matthew had asked Vlad about how he felt about seeing his sister do this he had responded with 'It's her life not mine. She can fuck it up if she wants to'. Mr. Edelstein held the beautiful Elizabeta close to him, his head in her neck, running his hands over her dark green dress that illuminated her green eyes. Mr. Edelstein was unlike all the other men. He was delicate and treated Elizabeta as if she was a doll that would break at any second. It was clear there was more there then what met the eye. Finally Mr. Zwingli sat alone drinking some Champaign from a glass. He was watching Eduard, Vladimir , and Matthew, quite amused with them, but you could tell he was antsy and wanted what he came here for. The cheap love. Matthew was well through his nineteenth song of the night when one of the golden doors entered and in entered Julchen Beilschmidt, better known as the infamous Julia. She had a beautifully round face with flawless white skin pale enough to make an Elizabethan lady jealous. She had crimson eyes that were too beautiful to be frightening and that were filled with so much light and confidence it was hard to look away. She wore a light blue dress that hugged her tiny and straight upper body. The dress flowed out at the bottom and was nearly see through, it may have been old fashioned but was timeless and beautiful on her. She had hair so white that it looked like ice against her pale skin. She was a sight to behold. Truly breathe taking. She looked up to the balcony and saw that no one was there. There was a look of relief and smile broke out on her face. She went and sat in a random blue chair at the same table as Mr. Zwingli. She sunk down deep in to the chair like a child who didn't want to sit up straight. She twirled her hair around her fingers, watching us up on stage. She watched us with a bored look on her face; every so often looking up to the balcony to see if someone was there. Mr. Zwingli continued to watch us up on stage and sip his Champaign not really caring about anything at the moment. It was about another four or five songs later when Matthew noticed the always enigmatic Ivan Braginski had sat down on the chair on the balcony above us all, the god of Mr. Brightside's. Finally Julia looked up and caught Ivan's eyes. Ivan smiled, it was cold and frightening enough to make the devil or any of his demons cringe. He pointed to Zwingli. Julia turned her head looked to Mr. Zwingli as if he were a bug that someone was making her kill. She got up to her feet and grabbed his hand. He got to his feet and she switched her hands as she led him to the door she had entered from merely minutes ago, shutting it tightly behind them both. It didn't take a genius to know what she was doing. The two came out about half an hour later. Mr. Zwingli was red faced and the first 4 buttons of his shirt undone but he was smiling something I don't think anyone has ever seen. Julia looked just the same as before, not a hair out of place, it seemed like nothing had changed at all. She was as perfect as before with the same bored look on her face. Mr. Zwingli kissed Julia on the cheek and then proceeded to walk out of the bar and off into the night. Julia sat down in the same seat as before her hand on her cheek watching time tick by as if she was waiting for something. Or someone.

It took around 5 or 6 hours for all of the girls' 'clients' to leave. By then Matthew was exhausted. He wasn't used to the long nights quite yet, but he knew he would be soon. After everyone left all the girls went back stage to change and to wash up. Matthew didn't want to bother with being around the girls just yet. He knew if he got close to them, any of them, even one, he wouldn't ever be able to look out into the audience and sing without being sick, similar to how Toris now had to serve drinks out front because he could not stand to see the woman who he loved wrap her legs around some other man. That's how Matthew ended up on the roof of Mr. Brightside's watching the sun rise like he had always done back when he was in Canada. He lit up a cigarette and took a long drag from it.

"Hello there, Matthew," Came an unfamiliar voice that Matthew hadn't heard yet. He turned seeing the beautiful elusive Julia. She smelled like lavender so strongly it was intoxicating, she was even more captivating up close then Matthew had realized from up on stage. "I'm sorry we didn't get the chance to meet before. I'm Julchen Beilschmidt but everyone calls me the 'awesome' Julia."

"Hello, Julia," he said in the quiet polite way he was taught by his Canadian mother. "It's very nice to meet you. But how exactly do you know my name?" Julia smiled at him.

"Liz told me about you were getting hired yesterday. Felka told me your name Matthew Williams. And Ivan, well Ivan told me you were on the roof," she came up next to Matthew and took the cigarette from his hand taking a drag. She looked Matthew over.

"You're really sweet Matthew. Yet somehow… you don't look like a Matthew to me. You also don't look like a Matt or a Mattie. We need a different nickname for you." she held the cigarette between her teeth, thinking. "Your hair looks like the feathers on the bird I used to have. Gilbird. That's it! You will be my Birdie. You even sing like a bird." she said removing the cigarette from her mouth and blowing smoke out in to the air, then smiling a beautiful white toothy grin at him.

"You are much cuter up close Birdie. Much cuter then the last guy Ivan hired." Matthew blushed and turned away, unused to the compliment and attention he was receiving, being used to being invisible and ignored thanks to his younger sister Amelia Jones.

"You don't talk much, do you Birdie?" she said. Matthew turned back and nodded to Julia. "Well I will definitely be changing that." she took one final puff of his cigarette finishing it and then dropping it on the ground where she stepped on top of it and rubbed it in to the ground with her light blue flats, putting out what ever was left of the ambers still alive in the cigarette.

"You look tired, so I will let you go back home. Wherever that is. We'll talk some other time." She turned and walked back the way she came. Her hair and her blue dress blowing in the wind.

The second night wasn't very different from Matthew's first. The girls almost all with the same clients as yesterday, but Mr. Zwingli, Felka, and Toris weren't there that night. It didn't take a genius to figure out why Toris and his beautiful Felka were not there. As for Zwingli, Matthew assumed it was merely business or the fact that he hadn't recovered from his encounter with Julia yet. Ivan had come up with a simple solution for this problem. Julia accompanied poor lonely Mr. Kirkland who had been deserted by his regular, Felka. Julia sat on his lap, her arms wrapped around his neck, wearing the same light blue dress as yesterday only today with many gilded flashy pearls around her ivory neck. The two were talking. It was clearly a deeper conversation than the one he and Felka had shared last night because neither of them was laughing. He looked at her mesmerized, tasting the drug Matthew would later become addicted to. Julia delicately stroked his face, speaking as she did so. Mr. Kirkland was smiling, Felka gave him companionship and someone to talk to, but Julia gave him something different: passion, lust and greed. It was clear from merely one look. It didn't take long before Mr. Kirkland was leading Julia to the room. Matthew tried to keep his mind occupied so he wouldn't think of the things happening in that one golden room. He watched as the other girls got more 'friendly' with their clients. Natalia was kissing Mr. Køhler's neck, while Mr. Køhler was having his head turned to the side by her sister Katyusha who was sitting next to the passed out form of Mr. Bondevik who seemed to have had five drinks to many to say the least. Tina was laying back on one of the couches in the back, her eyes closed, but they fluttered open and making her eyelashes snow glitter on to her cheeks as Mr. Oxenstierna leaned in to kiss her. For the first time Tina didn't look afraid, Matthew guessed it was the vodka. Elizabeta was pulling Mr. Edelstein's glove off with her teeth. And Catalena sat on the back of a couch a few feet from Mr. Bonnefoy, both very clearly intoxicated, as Catalena tried to kick off his dark gray top hat with her pink heels. It was all quite amusing seeing them all drunk out of their minds but Matthew waited to see Julia emerge form that room once again. When she did Matthew wasn't surprised that she looked exactly the same as she had upon entering. Not a curl out of place, not one bit of her make up smudged. Mr. Kirkland looked just as disheveled as Mr. Zwingli had the night before only this time he was missing his dress shirt and wearing only his bow tie under his suit jacket. He smiled up at Ivan, who was sitting in the same seat as last night, and then at Julia. Then the British man drunkenly walked out of the room and into the bar stumbling on his own two feet.

"I was sixteen when I first started here," Julia said on the roof about a week or two later, taking another drag from the cigarette Matthew had lit in an attempt to smoke earlier, she took it claiming it would ruin his voice and she could no longer call him Birdie if he couldn't sing any more. They had met on that roof every night since Matthew's first night. the two had formed some sort of strange friendship.

"Ivan likes them young and desperate when he gets them to first work here," she let out a puff of smoke and laughed to herself taking another drag. "I needed the money. Opa had just died and it was either let my little brother Ludwig starve in the streets or work here and give him a future." She took another drag, the end of the slow killer between her lips, glowing as she did so, shrinking as its poisons entered her lungs. "He was 9 when Opa died. He's 16 now, top of his class and graduating a year early, with a cute little Italian girlfriend. He claims they are just friends, but I see the way he looks at her. West has never wanted anything more than that little Italian." She laughed yet again throwing her head back as she did so. It was a beautiful sight that made Matthew's heart pound out of his chest. He internally scolded himself for that, knowing he didn't want to end up like Toris, but part of him couldn't help but want to be near this woman, she was like some gravitational force pulling him toward her. She was intoxicating. Matthew now saw why she was a favorite among the 'clients'.

"You are the first person to work here, Matthew, who actually seems…human I suppose. How did Ivan manage to blackmail a saint like you into working in hell?"

"He just asked me. He offered me a huge raise from my last job and I needed the excitement in my life. Honestly this is probably the best job I've ever had." Julia laughed again smiling her flawless white smile. A genuine smile not just the one she had put on for show and for the 'clients'. She finished the cigarette and dropped it to the ground putting it out under her foot then looking back up at Matthew.

"Your turn. Tell me about your life. Who is my Birdie?" Matthew saw no point in lying to her, nor avoiding the topic, so he told her everything. About his birth in Quebec; about his messed up family; about his half sister Amelia ; about how he was unnoticed in school and never wanted to feel that way again, and how that was the reason he sang, so he would never be invisible again. Once a little spilled out the rest came tumbling out into Julia's lap for her to hear and judge for herself. She was quiet and listened, never interrupting or judging. She was unbiased and interested, the first person ever to be. And Matthew was amazed by that. He hadn't planed to fall in love when he came to work for Ivan, and Julia was the kind of girl who would only lead to trouble, drama and heart break, three things Matthew avoided at all costs. But for once Matthew didn't want to avoid it. If being in the storm meant being with Julia Beilschmidt then Matthew would weather it.

_**Canada- Matthew Williams**_

_**Russia- Ivan Braginski**_

_**Prussia- Julchen 'Julia' Beilschmidt**_

_**Romania- Vladimir Moraru**_

_**Estonia - Eduard von Bock**_

_**Ukraine-Katyusha Braginski **_

_**Hungary- Elizabeta Héderváry**_

_**Lithuania - Toris Laurinaitis**_

_**America- Amelia 'Amy' Jones**_

_**Poland- Felka Łukasiewicz**_

_**Latvia - Regina Galante**_

_**Belarus- Natalia Braginski**_

_**Moldova- Catalena Moraru**_

_**Finland- Tina Väinämöinen**_

_**Sweden- Mr. Oxenstierna**_

_**Denmark - Mr. Køhler**_

_**Norway- Mr. Bondevik**_

_**Iceland- Mr. Steilsson**_

_**England- Mr. Kirkland**_

_**France- Mr. Bonnefoy**_

_**Austria- Mr. Edelstein**_

_**Switzerland- Mr. Zwingli**_

**I hope you enjoyed part one of Mr. Brightside**

**»Alice**


End file.
